Discussion (65) ¬

A noble sentiment… but I have to wonder, how is a sword in the hands of a college lad supposed to do much of anything towards restoring peace to the world in modern times? Does Niviene really expect it to do that? Does she know what our world is like today? Does Scott plan on writing this story in a direction where a sword CAN do that? If so, I am curious how he manages it.

Oh, the cross was “useful” enough in it’s time. As a sword is meant to efficiently slice and stab and parry, a cross was meant to cause a great deal of pain before death, and worked well for the purpose. The man who died on the cross, and his followers–they’re more why it became recognized as a symbol.

Who wants to fight against it? particularly in Arthur’s time, who would want to fight a king with a magic sword? no one fights, ergo peace. ish. not sure how it would work in our time, but hey, it’s not like Merlin could predict bombs, right?

But it did have amazing lore around it. If a lady in a lake gave it to him under such amazing circumstances as those, I think everybody would automatically assume that it was magical, as the lady in the lake probably was since normal humans can’t live underwater. The unknown is frightening and sometimes dangerous.

Actual Excalibur lore does say it is a magical sword that was unbreakable with an edge that could not be dulled. Whether or not Excalibur had other magical properties was not detailed, but was eluded to throughout Excalibur lore.

This works well because it means in the dreamland Chronicles tale those other eluded-to-but-not-defined qualities can be whatever Scott wishes them to be to fit the story…

I personally think granting wisdom and the ability to perceive (and possibly effect) creatures from the dream world (and nightmare realms) to be excellent qualities to use.

I’m saying because it’s a magical sword. jk. Throughout history, the only answer to violence has been violence. There’s a meme that Violence solves everything. Unfortunately it’s true. By common standards, we’re still a pretty young race. We still cling to our primitive instincts. The most powerful person is regarded as an Alpha and given the respect of their peers. Some bow down to those with power while others try to take it. It happens in the animal world as well. Now, onto the sword specifically. As it was stated before, Excaliber is a symbol. It symbolises the power to destroy the enemies of the people, yes but it also symbolizes the hope that maybe one day, the foes that continuously try to destroy their way of life will realize the futility and either live with them in peace or leave them alone. The Excaliber is “embedded” with Arthur’s noble vision. It is an inspiration, a muse, a “symbol”, Dan may not use the sword itself but he can go into politics and use the chivalrous notions set forth by his predecessor to, hopefully, change the world for the good. Or just use magic. Sounds good either way.

Off the top of my head, a weapon can bring peace by cowing enemies. A magic item can inspire peace in any number of ways. A magic weapon’s magical properties might be weapon related (helping with the cowing), or the weapon side might be mundane utility for an item with otherwise unrelated magic effects, intended to be wielded by a king in a rough and tumble period of history.

Alternatively, if there’s an incarnation of Pure Evil handy, the pointy end goes into that?

If everyone had a gun, wouldn’t you be MUCH nicer to people? Sure, some could use it for not-so-great purposes, but if every single person you knew (including yourself) was even expected as a social norm to have a gun, you’d be quite polite to them, i’d think.

As for Excaliber, it really was more a symbol of power than peace. But nobody would want to fight against a great knight with a magic sword unless they really, really had to. So, therefore, no wars, etc, whatever. Means peace, right?

BTW that’s really hard: Swinging a longsword with one hand like that. Just saying. I like the type of story that’s unpredictable. I really don’t know what could happen next. It’s such a creative story! Great job Scott!

Well, that would be because it is a TWO handed sword. They kinda did design and make long swords for one handed use to. Kinda why they weren’t super long, like a claymore, or heavy for cleaving thru heavy armour. Then there is the whole balance thing. And you also have the whole forged by dwarves and elves thing, who said it was plain old steel? Plenty of potential for enchantments to make it “lighter”, never mind what Merlin might have done to it too.

Not entirely true. I own a Claymore, a 1.5 hander, a Flamberge and some more assorted swords of high-quality.
A well-made sword has the balance as close to the Quillion as possible. Mostly done by using a weighty pommel. A well-forged blade is rather thin and more flexible than the pakistani Stainless steel atrocities called “swords” that are only meant for hanging on a wall and looking good.

A quality sword can be balanced on one hand, a centimeter or two under -or above the quillion, depending on the way it’smeant to be used. A zweihänder is not for both hands because of it’s weight, but because of the extra speed and leverage that can be reached by “tilting” the blade in a strike. IF the balance is right!!

Just one example. It’s not all as straightforward as it may seem. I have seen guys (and gals!!) do things with an 11kg 1.80m (!) Flamberge, that I didn’t thought possible. There’s a reason that Swiss LandsKnëchte were so prized in armies. ( they usually got twice the pay of ordinary swordsmen)

I have a two handed sword as well, about 30 – 35 lbs. I can swing it one handed but it takess massive muscle control to get it to stop when you want it to AND those are muscles you never use. Once you get the hang of it, it’s a little easier but a normal large claymore would be nearly impossible to manoeuvre like that. Fortunately, that’s not a normal sword.

That’s the point. A claymore was used to cause blunt trauma, the armoured knight being “the brake”, and then use it as a , well, lance, basically but to get it up to speed, it was wielded in a continuous figure of 8 . Once you get the hang of that, you can imagine why the scots (and irish) were so feared by the british knights.

If You got a claymore, or a good, hefty zweihänder, you should try that. Just make the swing a continuos figure of 8,, with every “O” of the swing next to Your body.
Any good balanced sword will suddenly feel pretty light.

Ew, even if you win this round, you are going up against XKCD next. I’ll do my part, but yeesh, that’ll be a tough fight.

As for how is he supposed to do it with a sword in modern times? The sword doesn’t have to be the catalyst. It wasn’t in Arthur’s time. It’s a symbol. A symbol that Arthur thought could motivate people in a good way and instead the motivation turned to greed and powerlust. That motivation could be what Daniel needs to bring about those changes himself and not necessarily with the sword, but because he has the sword giving him that motivation.

Over in Gunnerkrigg Court Parley, not realizing just how horrifyingly SHARP the sword Coyote created out of one of his teeth was , took a casual swing with it and sliced Robot’s steel body in two. I hope Dan is more careful… O_O

……………only -sniffle- seven -sniffle- chapters? Kinda makes me sad. But I’m really interested to see where this is going. And, like everyone else, I’m curious to see if this’ll let Dan in to Dreamland. Even if it’s only for a day.

As sad as I’ll be to see this story end, it is better in the long run to have a definite, planned-for end to a story. The alternative would be a never-ending story, with the author eventually running out of ideas, yet dragging the story onward, and the quality degrades tremendously after that…

This exchange is great, but I think Nicole who had been so vocal about the reality / plausibility of Dreamland would react more. Actual physical PROOF, a mermaid, all of the lingering doubts about Dreamland essentially dispelled. Wouldn’t she be freaking at this point? The doubt has slowly been eroded, but this is a major change in perspective.

The Sword of Kings exists mainly in Dreamland, although it manifests as a small pendant in the waking world. It’s apparently as old as Dreamland itself. Excalibur is a much newer blade, a sword Niviene had the Elves and Dwarfs create for Arthur’s use on Earth. They’re different things.

As someone who has done some sword techniques as part of aikido, I have to say that someone who is entirely untrained swinging around a real, sharp blade like that is incredibly dangerous. Especially because swords are heavy, and he’s swinging it around with one hand even though it appears to be a two-handed sword (single-handed swords like rapiers tend to be much smaller and lighter).

I’ve accidentally hit myself wielding a wooden practice sword (which is significantly lighter than a real one) often enough to know that what Dan’s doing here is likely to get him severely injured. 😛

Asian&european swords are quite different. Aikidi is not exactly the same as re-enactment and/or the European school of swordmanship. A good norman 2-hander is not as heavy as it looks, although, i have to agree, swinging that thing in a flat plane, without “looping” it at the end of the swing, is not only dangerous for the surrounding environment, but also múrder on your wrists… ( been there, done that..).

try to explain a strained wrist to ayour ICT collegues, nót as the result of RSI, but the result of hacking a chicken-shed to pieces, “just to see wat a true, sharp blade can do” 😛

I agree…. I would most definitely hold that w/ both hands and strongly discourage anyone from swinging it in the dark, untrained, just to “test it out.” It seems a bit arrogant to test it out anyways. Should give more respect to the sword and the situation, instead of just “hey! The sword is mine now! Sweet! Let’s test it out!” Sounds more like something that Alex would do. The fact that Niviene didn’t say anything I took it as a sign that she’s actually evil and hopes that he’d cut himself by accident >_> <– look of suspicion. Or maybe she's one of those who suck up to the king by never criticizing anything he does, and then betray him at the end… dun dun dun

As drawn, excalibur is going to be between 2.5 and 3.5 pounds, assuming forged as a fighting and not show sword. Second point of interest, is that it would not have been much sharper than an average Ax. Unlike the classic Japanese blades, European blades had to be able to handle bashing their edge against large solid sheets of metal armor, something a highly honed edge is bad at.

None the less, randomly swinging a 3 foot or so sword around is unhealthy for anyone in the area.

I am starting to think that your computer just doesn’t like us. First it takes forever to render some pages. Then it goes AWOL (as my niece would say “it esploded”)…yeah…the comp definitely doesn’t like us. 😛